It takes a whole community to raise a child

RE

This Cumbria SACRE logo was designed by Rosalind Weir, one of Armathwaite’s pupils!

WHAT’S NEW IN RE?

Jewish Celebrations for Year 1

In Year 1 we have been learning about some aspects of the Jewish faith as part of our R.E. learning. This week we were looking at some of the special things that are involved in celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukah. We heard the story of the oil lamps in the Temple and learned how foods cooked in oil are a key part of Hanukah celebrations. We made delicious Latkes (potato pancakes) and the traditional accompaniment of apple sauce. They were delicious!

Year 1 children visit Armathwaite Church

STOP PRESS Armathwaite School features in new guidance document for schools in Cumbria. The guidance is for parental concerns for RE visits. Photographs of Armathwaite pupils highlight the wealth of learning to be gained from taking pupils on RE visits. These are photos from the past two years of RE at Armathwaite School.

We follow the Cumbria Locally Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education, which includes an enquiry based approach to teaching RE. Children learn about all the major religions and explore their own beliefs and opinions by exploring aspects of religious and secular concepts such as: worship, prayer, identity, morality, commitment, friendship, thankfulness and pilgrimage. Our main areas of learning are Christianity and Islam and in addition, we also explore Buddhism in KS2. Children experience a range of visits and visitors to enrich the classroom activities. Mrs Yates is a member of the Cumbria SACRE and is involved in the review of the Agreed Syllabus and other developments.

Philosophy for Children(P4C) is a significant teaching approach used as part of RE, allowing children to reflect deeply and think critically. We were proud to see our Year 6 pupils involved in providing a demonstration of a P4C & RE enquiry at a SACRE conference in Cumbria to over 80 RE teachers and religious representatives. The focus of the demonstration was to model British Values in action through their chosen question, ‘Does religion choose you or do you choose religion?’ A copy of the handout to his session can be found here. Handout Preparing pupils for Life in Modern Britain.

We aspire to all our pupils developing high levels of skill in collaborative, caring, critical and creative thinking – the 4Cs of P4C.